Milton Keynes teenager tells how he made £200,000 in a year playing the stock market

A teenager from MK has shared his tips on stocks and shares after building a £200,000 investment portfolio in just 12 months,

Adam Mlamali 19, taught himself about stocks and shares by watching YouTube videos while studying for A-Levels in business studies and computer science.

He'd already set up his own jewellery business to earn the initial £200 cash to invest.

Now he's determined to become a stock market millionaire and he plans to use his earning to support his family after watching his mum once go into debt to buy Christmas presents,.

One of his first investments was with Virgin Galactic - because he'd always dreamed of being an astronaut when he was a child. The dabble soon earned him a 100 per cent profit and he never looked back.

Now Adam is sharing his success with a series of tips for anyone looking to make money on the stock market. He's also an ambassador for Awaken Genuis, which aims to reduce school exclusions and improve mental wellbeing in children.

He says investing is a "long game" and he has subscriptions to numerous news outlets as well as using free sites monitor market movements.

Thoroughly researching a company is a must before you invest in it, and advice from trading 'gurus' should be avoided, he said.

Adam, who now works in finance, told the Mail Online: "Avoid paying people to tell you what stocks to buy and sell...The first few steps when beginning to invest in stock are crucial.If you rely on someone to tell you what to buy and sell during a time of the stock market having increased momentum it feels amazing, but you also start to have a reliance on that person.

"This is when the thin line is drawn between gambling and investing.

"It is much better to build a personal conviction as to why you believe a stock will appreciate in value and then learn as to why your conviction was right or wrong."

Adam uses Marketwatch.com to check prices of American stocks each day. He also uses Investopidia.com and checks check Yahoo Finance Analyst Price Targets.

He believes the best way for newcomers to invest is by putting money into index funds.

"Index investing allows you to spread your risk over hundreds of individual stocks just by purchasing one fund,"